Meteorfall
by Corinth Mugwort
Summary: Our favourite blonde SOLDIER has to save the planet, and the stoic SeeD is along for the ride. A re-imagining of the events of Final Fantasy VII. Yaoi, rated M.
1. Every Story Begins with a Name

So I started writing this a while ago when I got really bored (we're talking a year here) and was on an obsessive Squall/Cloud high. I like to play around with characters in already created situations because otherwise I tend to just completely burn out really quickly, so I figured I'd kind of mash worlds together here. We're in Gaia, it's mainly based upon the world of FFVII but with some FFVIII components mixed in. The Ultimecia debacle happened a while ago, stuff happened. Now we're in Meteorfall time. Since this is **yaoi**, no real mentions of Rinoa. If you're not all that interested I suggest not reading it, so there we go. If you do think it's kind of cool and end up reading it, a review would be decent and might give me a kick up the arse to attempt writing more.

This seems particularly like the first part of the game even in the dialogue but don't worry, that'll change once things start rolling.

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><p>Cloud had no idea why he was here. The old him never would have had the guts to come out and do this mission, not that he would even know that himself. Just moments before he had wondered about this, he'd jumped off the roof of a train and onto the platform below. Ah, that's it. He remembered now. It was all about the money.<p>

Just days before he'd been hired to do some work with the local terrorist organisation, AVELANCHE. Well, they actually called themselves 'Eco-warriors', but that was none of his concern really. They had offered him a decent amount of money and a place to stay, so he was hardly going to say no. However, he was a bit bitter that someone else would be infringing on that payment. He wasn't the only one who'd been hired.

Some angsty little SeeD. He'd jumped off the roof just after Cloud had, putting the gunblade he was holding back in its sheath once he'd checked there were no threats. A gunblade. Such a pretentious weapon, no one used them because they were just so tedious and hard to master; anyone who tried usually got a broken wrist. That was enough to deter them. Still, he had heard SeeDs were a bit funny in the head. This one seemed incredibly introverted, they had barely spoken two words to each other. That was probably better than the rest of them though. He had to admit that, despite his general opinion of the mercenaries, he was at least a little bit jealous of just how much this man got paid.

He sighed and looked around the empty platform. It seemed that the others had already set off ahead of them. That was gratitude for you. He refrained from taking the enormous weapon off his back, he knew he'd have quick enough reactions to reach it easily if there was a threat.

He glanced at the SeeD, "Come on. We don't have time to stand around here." He didn't wait for an answer, setting off into the reactor instead. He could hear the footsteps behind him though, so he was obviously being listened to. That was good, at least he knew who was in charge.

He met up with three of the resistance members once they had gone inside. Who knew why they were all stood together, the leader was always completely adamant about nobody standing too close in case they were discovered. Cloud knew this was probably a bit extreme, but also didn't particularly care.

"You're a SOLDIER, aren't you?" The lone female of the group stepped forward, looking at Cloud and cocking her head curiously. She didn't seem to know how to act around him. He barely even reacted, if he had he just would have rolled his eyes. He sure as hell wasn't a SOLDIER any more, and he obviously wouldn't be hanging around them if he was. Luckily one of the men with her stepped in for him once the silence began to get awkward. Cloud recognised him, his name was Biggs if he remembered correctly.

"Leave it, Jessie. He _used _to be a SOLDIER, but not any more. He's one of us now, right?" He frowned a little bit, looking at Cloud more closely, "Didn't catch your name, though, Ex-SOLDIER... care to dish it out?"

Cloud sighed, he had no choice but to reply to this one, "...Cloud Strife." He didn't like having to announce his name for anyone who asked, it made him feel like he was back in the army. He heard a slight snort from behind him. He didn't see what was so amusing.

"And that's Squall behind you, right?" The man he presumed to be Biggs carried on talking, despite the fact that Cloud was in no mood to have a conversation. He just shrugged.

"Probably." Biggs looked a little bit less amicable now, but still tried to have some sort of introductory conversation with him just so that they wouldn't all fall into awkward silence.

"Cloud, eh? I'm..." Cloud cut him off right then and there, he had no reason to listen to all of this. He held up his hand, watching as the man's words died in his throat.

"Don't bother, I don't care what any of your names are. Once this job's over, I'm getting outta this place." Everyone looked a bit awkward after that. Some small part of himself felt ashamed for being so mean, but it was probably easier this way. He wasn't going to be here for long, there was no point in getting all cosy with some random strangers who he happened to work with for a few days.

While they all stood there in the sudden silence, the heavy-set, muscular leader of AVELANCHE suddenly ran over. Cloud assumed he had been getting things ready, it was the easiest way to explain away his absence after they'd departed from the train. This was the only man whose name he actually remembered. Barret Wallace. He was black-skinned and looked to be in his mid thirties, clad in just a dirty brown vest with some green trousers. He wore large brown boots too, the ends of the trousers tucked into them scruffily. From what Cloud could tell he couldn't really afford anything less shabby. He had several metal bands around his waist, although it was unclear what they were for as they certainly weren't connected to the trousers to hold them up so he could say goodbye to the notion that it was some kind of belt. The same metal bands, although smaller, were also attached to his left wrist, with several indents in for storing materia. He didn't seem to have any, though. The other arm was not an arm at all, but had a complicated machine gun mounted into it. The attachments were assumedly interchangeable. There was a tattoo visible on his left shoulder, although in the current lighting it was difficult to tell what it depicted. He had some marks on his face as well, but instead of tattoos his cheek was adorned with three scars. For a moment Cloud wondered where he had managed to get them, but there wasn't much point in asking. He wasn't quite that curious.

"The hell you all doin'!" Barret seemed to be quite angry, although it was understandable. He obviously had wanted them to make better use of their time, instead of standing around and socialising. Cloud would have been happy to oblige. "You should know by now, I told you a thousand times! Never move in a group!" He shook his head, looking quite stressed, "C'mon. We'll meet further in." He ran off back the way he'd come, the others starting to follow. They stayed a little while though, going in smaller groups so they would still have some protection.

Cloud noticed he'd been left with Squall. While this other man looked to be fairly normal SeeD material the word on the street was that he was apparently a hero. There had been some kind of threat that he'd stopped in its tracks about four years ago. Cloud hadn't heard anything about it, although truth be told those years were kind of fuzzy. He had probably been out on some important mission for the company. Yeah, that was right...

He kept giving Squall quick glances as they walked. The man was probably around a year younger than him, perhaps the same age if he took into consideration that he wasn't really the best judge of this sort of thing. The bomber jacket he was wearing was quite distinctive, black leather with a fur lined collar. There was a low-cut shirt underneath it, white and fairly thin, presumably so that he didn't get too warm under that jacket. Hanging around his neck was a silver chain, the pendant attached to it seeming to have some lion-esque features. His legs were covered by long, black leather trousers. Cloud felt it was a bit overkill that they were held up by three interconnecting red belts that hung carelessly off his waist. There were more belts around one of his thighs, which also seemed excessive. His hands and feet were covered by leather gloves and boots respectively, the same colour as his jacket and trousers. He seemed to really like leather. His hair was dark brown, the ends just about reaching his shoulders. Cloud spotted a ring on one of his fingers, it seemed similar to the pendant. The same wild, feline features. He felt that he had perhaps been watching him for too long now so looked away quickly. He needed to focus on the mission and some mercenary was going to have no part in distracting him from it.

After a few minutes of silent walking they all met Barret once more. Strangely enough he seemed to deem it safe to stay in a group for the time being. The muscular man looked around at all of them, checking that everyone had got there. His eyes met each person's in turn, finally settling on Cloud.

"Yo!" Cloud looked up when Barret suddenly spoke, "This your first time in a reactor?"

"No." What kind of stupid question was that? This man obviously knew that Cloud was an ex-SOLDIER, First Class at that. It didn't take much to find out, all he had to do was check the hue of the uniform he was wearing. The uniform he still hadn't wanted to take off... "I did work for Shinra, y'know. First Class." Barret seemed to ignore most of what he said though, apparently he just felt like explaining things.

"Did'ja know the planet's full of Mako energy?" Yes, he did. He didn't need this reaffirmed, "People here use it every single day, makes things so easy for everyone." Barret frowned, folding his arms, "But it's also the life blood of the planet. Doesn't stop Shinra from suckin' the blood out with these goddamn machines, though." Cloud rolled his eyes, he didn't need basic science explained to him with a layer of anti-Shinra crap. He'd been to school, and had no real opinion on the company any more. Neither were useful to him.

"I'm not here for a lecture." He sighed, running his hands through his spikes before carrying on, "Let's just hurry up and do this." He knew they probably had a time frame, and he'd prefer to stick to it so that he didn't get killed. The others could do what they wanted, but he wanted to get paid. Barret didn't seem to take too kindly to this though.

"You're comin' with me from now on, and nunna your bitchin'." Oh dear. It was apparent that he had managed to get on this man's bad side. He heard a slight chuckle from Squall, and that annoyed him. Surely he must share the sentiment? He could have spoken up. He sighed as Barret dragged him off, he was obviously being separated from the group. Weirdly enough Squall followed them. After some thought Cloud supposed that made sense, that way the groups were split in half. They were the three who would end up being in combat after all, the other three were just setting everything up to be easier for them.

As they traversed through the reactor, Cloud couldn't help but get this constant sense of deja vu. While he said that he'd been in reactors now he was becoming more and more aware of the fact that he couldn't really remember any of those times. Except... everything seemed so familiar. It had caused him to answer quickly earlier without really thinking it through.

After getting through a few different rounds of security with the help of the other group, they ended up in an elevator. Squall had gone over and pressed one of the buttons, at which point the elevator had begun to slowly start moving. Cloud hoped it wouldn't be quite this slow on the way back.

"All these reactors'll slowly drain out all the life, so slow people don't notice. Once they're done, that'll be that." Oh great. Barret was giving him some more basic science with anti-government propaganda sprinkled in for good measure.

"It's not my problem." Perhaps that was a bit harsh, but this was way too much lecturing when he just wanted to get a fairly simple mission done so he could get himself some cash. The job description hadn't involved getting his ear talked off.

"The planet's dyin', Cloud! Don'tcha even care?" Barret seemed appalled that the ex-SOLDIER didn't even seem to care about the state of their planet. Even the SeeD looked a bit shocked.

"You know what I care about?" He may as well stay consistent, even if he didn't like the sound of their entire earth crumbling underneath them, "Finishing this job before all the security ends up right on top of us. Can't do shit if you're dead, right?" He watched as Barret turned away, shaking with fury. His fists were clenched, he actually looked as if he might strike out at something. Or someone. Cloud stood his ground, despite the fact that he would have quite liked to step back just slightly. He felt some space between them would have been a nice thing to have. Eventually Barret looked back over his shoulder, by which point the elevator was slowing to a stop. The doors opened with a ping and Cloud just left quickly so they were in a less contained area. The lack of space had been making him a bit claustrophobic, and worrying about Barret getting violent had done nothing for his nerves. He had been hiding it quite well though, this phobia wasn't something he wanted to advertise to everyone.

They continued further into the reactor, quickly dealing with any guards that came their way. They had to do some climbing to get down to the reactor core but that didn't slow them down much. Cloud was definitely well trained enough to get down all of the ladders as quickly as he could and Squall seemed to manage it about the same. Barret was just used to doing this, he supposed, since the man managed to keep up with them easily despite his bulkier frame. Cloud mainly let himself go into auto-pilot as they made their way there, since there wasn't anything that he found particularly challenging.

"Cloud." He looked up, blinking when Barret began to talk to him again, "Set the bomb. It's time to blow this place to the ground." He frowned, he was sure that wasn't in his job description. He figured that the leader would be in charge of doing something like that.

"Shouldn't you do it?" His eyes narrowed slightly, he didn't appreciate having this sprung on him. Not that he cared either way, he just would have appreciated some warning. Or the SeeD could have done it...

Barret didn't take too kindly to being questioned, however lightly, "Jus' do it! In the meantime, I'll watch to make sure you don't pull nothin'. Can't trust you Shinra types." It was obvious he wasn't trusted. Ex-SOLDIER, and all that. It was understandable and he begrudgingly accepted it.

"Fine, I'll do it." He grabbed the bomb and began to move to set it at the reactor core.

A sudden pain flared up in his brain. Flashes of another reactor came and went spasmodically, words he couldn't quite make out echoing in his mind. It was as if something was trying to remind him, perhaps even warn him of something. It stopped just as abruptly as it had started. He opened his eyes, not having realised until now that they had been screwed up tightly. His hands were clutching his head, and he was on his knees a few feet away from the core he had to strap the bomb to. He slowly relaxed his hands, starting to get up. He glanced around, but didn't meet anyone's eyes, feeling embarrassed about the fact that they had witnessed whatever had just taken place.

"What's up?" He wished he knew. Barret was watching him, hiding any concern he may have had. Cloud just shook his head, noticing that Squall or whatever his name was staring at him as well. He really wished they wouldn't, he had just had a momentary lapse. He thought so, anyway. It seemed reasonable.

"Nothing, sorry." He frowned inwardly, not quite knowing why he'd just apologised. He had no reason to and it was rather unlike him. He shook his head and set the bomb, backing away from the reactor core once he'd finished. A blaring alarm had just started up at an almost deafening volume, red lights flashing all around them. It caught him by surprise, causing him to shield his eyes slightly to stop all the intrusive, dazzling lights from blinding him.

"Heads up, they're comin' this way!" Barret yelled. He'd turned while the others were getting acclimatised to the lights causing bright spots to burst out behind their eyes and seen an enormous, six legged robo-guard advancing towards them. While they'd been occupied he had fired a few warning shots at it, gesturing for the others to turn and fight. Squall was ready a few seconds ahead of the blonde, getting his gunblade ready for battle. Cloud soon joined them, pulling his sword off his back. He knew his help would probably be needed, this robot looked particularly vicious. Its design was reminiscent of a scorpion, the stinger its live counterpart would normally have replaced by a large, rather nasty looking drill. It had two rail-guns mounted on either side of the main 'body', and even the mechanised talons holding it up seemed razor sharp. A safety hazard indeed. Well, that was what it was designed for.

Cloud checked the strip of metal wrapped around his wrist, perusing his rather meagre selection of materia for something that might help. He knew he could just hack the scorpion into pieces with his sword, but if any of these could get the job done faster that would be a great help. He eventually settled on trying out Bolt, hoping that it might mess up the electronics in the guard robot. The crackle of lightning that hit it did seem to work, but not quite as effectively as he'd hoped. He supposed it was silly to think that one blast of electricity would have been enough to bring it down, so he kept trying that between sword slashes. He made sure to not get in the way of any stray bullets or swipes from the gunblade, more for his own safety than ruining their chances. This would still have been fairly easy on his own and he felt that he could probably have dealt with the fight himself if it weren't for the fact that they had been ambushed.

After a few minutes they managed to bring the guard scorpion down, at which point Cloud looked around at the other two.

"C'mon, let's get outta here." He tried to keep his cool, even if he knew they only had around ten minutes to safely get all the way back past the entrance and make sure the others had joined them. Barret nodded and went ahead, leaving Squall and the blonde to rush after him. They met up with the others on the way back, although Jessie managed to get her leg caught in one of the larger grates about half way through. Cloud had pulled her out on the way past, making sure not to let her leg catch on it and cause a serious injury. They wouldn't make it out if that happened, not without leaving her behind. Even if he didn't care for these people he wasn't going to be responsible for a death.

As they all sprinted away from the reactor together, it emitted a wide ring of fire from its base as it exploded magnificently. The combustion and flamed looked spectacular in the night sky, visible even a few miles away from Midgar. The damage to the surrounding area was catastrophic, but the moment of destruction had been simply amazing to behold.


	2. Let's Split Up

Second chapter! This ones a bit shorter than last time, but I feel it needs to end where it does. I'll probably put the next one up a bit faster as a result.

I find that reviews help me get more motivation to work on this. I got a lovely one for my first chapter which was what kickstarted me into action, so if you want more it would be cool if you could just drop me a line or two. Sorry, don't mean to nag! I'll be quiet and you can read the next chapter now.

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><p>After escaping, the group took temporary refuge in a dark tunnel. The floor was littered with debris, shards of broken metal scattered about the floor and destroyed pipes hanging from the grimy, dank walls. Apart from that it looked more like a cave than anything that could have been a building before the explosion. Barret looked as if he was thinking something over. He seemed quite solemn after what they'd just done. They had shut down some of Shinra's operations and cost them a lot of money in the process, but how would this effect the people? Many innocents would have died in the explosion or the fires that had broken out around the sector because of their actions. It was the same battle he had with himself every single time they did this. It was worth it, he knew that. Better for some people to die for the greater good than to all get killed because people stood by and let Shinra suck their planet dry.<p>

"That should keep the planet going a little while longer." He folded his arms, looking around at the tunnel they seemed to be stuck in, "'til we work out somethin' better." The others stayed quiet. For all of the other real AVELANCHE members the ramifications of their actions seemed to be hitting them hard. Even Squall looked quite solemn at the moment. Cloud knew it was insensitive of him, but this still wasn't any of his business. He wasn't taking sides. The money was what mattered to him. Jessie seemed to be setting up some explosives near one of the larger piles of debris, attempting to find them a way out. She gestured for them all to get back and, not wanting to get caught up in some kind of blast, they all quickly complied. The explosion knocked all the debris down, clearing the exit so that they could carry on their way. There was now one more pile of flaming rubble, but there were so many others that it made very little difference.

"Awright, let's get outta here!" Barret seemed to have his energy back now that he'd had a bit of time to justify the night's events in his head. There was no real time to sit around feeling depressed about it, there was still plenty more that needed to be done and far too few people willing to do it. His voice contained renewed vigor, "Everybody rendezvous at the station in Sector 8. We'll meet up on the train." They all began to run off in groups, even Barret going off alone this time. He'd seen that the blonde SOLDIER had seemed unremorseful and had to get some time away from him so that he wouldn't end up blowing up in his face. The last thing he needed right now was to have Cloud come up and bother him again about when he would be getting some cash for all of this.

Cloud realised he was alone with Squall. That rather annoyed him because he'd wanted to have a word with Barret about his paycheck. The sooner he could get enough money to get away from this particular line of work, the better. If he got detained by Shinra for aiding terrorists then that would be bad news. The last thing he wanted was to go back there if he could help it. After shaking his head to clear his thoughts he glanced over at Squall, sighing and brushing a hand through his blonde spikes. This could perhaps be just a tad awkward.

"Time to get going, I guess." If he was going to be stuck with this guy he may as well get back to the others quickly to make their alone time brief. Better to be with a group of people he didn't care about than to be with one and be forced into conversation. After looking back at the man for confirmation and earning a nod, he began to head through towards the station.

The more they walked amongst the panicked natives to this sector, the more weirdly awkward Cloud felt. While he wasn't the type to be all that interested in idle chit-chat he couldn't shake the feeling that walking around in this silence with Squall was making him feel rather awkward. Should he say anything? He wondered which was worse: uncomfortable silence or forced banter. Occasionally he would let his eyes glance over in Squall's direction, becoming increasingly more perturbed by the fact that the SeeD seemed to be fine with the silence. Why wasn't he so lucky? Why was he so bothered by this all of a sudden?

Soon enough he was disturbed by an ever so slightly mocking chuckle, "You know, we might get there a bit faster if you took your eyes off me and kept them on the road." Cloud blinked, not realising that he'd spent a little longer than usual watching him this time, and when his eyes refocused it was plain to see that Squall had quite the amused smirk on his face. Cloud quickly shook his head, clearing his thoughts and making sure that not even the slightest shred of embarrassment showed.

"It's nothing. I was just gonna say that you did a good job back there." He'd come up with a quick excuse and had played it off coolly enough. Why had he been staring? He shook the question off and just chalked it up to the fact that he barely knew who this guy was, so had just been giving him a look over to see if he really could be trustworthy. It was a reasonable enough excuse.

"Fair enough. You didn't do too badly yourself. For a SOLDIER, I mean." There was always that hint of haughty amusement in Squall's voice every single time he opened his mouth. That annoyed Cloud. Who said SeeDs were any better than SOLDIER? They had a rivalry of sorts, he knew that much, because the SeeDs tended to think that Shinra's finest hadn't earned their power through plenty of training and had only gained it through reckless treatments and controversial experiments. On the other hand, SOLDIERs were of the opinion that SeeD were fairly obselete in a world where there were rarely any sorceress attacks. In a way, both sides had valid points. It didn't change the fact that he didn't appreciate being looked down on like that.

"Oh?" The blonde murmured, glancing at Squall coolly, "Didn't think I'd bother with my full strength when nothing there could pose the slightest challenge to someone like me. Figured I'd drop it to about the same level as you so that we were an equal party." He suppressed a smile when the SeeDs brow furrowed with just barely concealed annoyance, taking pleasure in the fact that he'd not been the only one insulted. The man didn't seem to want to say anything back so he just carried on walking them through the burning Sector.

The two of them continued until they got to a street corner that would take them even closer to the train station they were supposed to be regrouping at. Cloud had been brushing past the people walking about on the street, but stopped when he saw a woman around his age get pushed to the ground by a man who was scurrying about in a panic. He frowned, ready to go and stop him and ask him to apologise for knocking her, but he scarpered at the sight of a man advancing on him with a fairly intimidating sword on his back. He sighed and settled for helping her up off the ground instead.

"What happened?" the girl asked, looking up at Cloud in slight confusion. Well, she didn't seem hurt. That was a relief. He watched as she brushed off her mid-length pink dress and she checked her plait to see if the ribbon securing it was still present and accounted for.

"You should probably get out of here. It's not safe at the moment." Cloud didn't even notice Squall walk off ahead of him to the train station. The brunet had become fed up with waiting for him to finish his little chit-chat with this girl and had instead headed off to the station. They were better off not travelling in groups anyway.

The girl nodded, "Oh, okay. I'll let you get going then, your friend seems to have walked off without you." She gestured down the pathway that she thought the man had taken, but he'd already disappeared from view. She was slightly alarmed when Cloud cursed and headed off in the same direction, but decided to let him go. It was strange, that sword had seemed so familiar... perhaps they'd meet again.

Cloud had set off after Squall quickly, becoming quite annoyed at his behavior. Why had he just run off without him? He could have at least said something! Surely he hadn't been taking that long talking to that girl. Soon enough he came to a fork in the pathway that he'd taken. Ah. Which way was the station? He was less knowledgeable about the streets of Midgar than he'd originally thought. After some dithering he strode purposefully down the right path, figuring that the quieter path was probably his better option.

After some walking he approached a dark, dingy alley. Perhaps this wasn't the right way after all. By the time he noticed the guards patrolling the perimeter it was too late. There were cries of, "Hey! You there!" and he had to quickly reach for his sword to deflect the bullets that were soaring towards him. His lightning fast reactions allowed him to catch them easily with his sword, the collision causing sparks before the projectiles ricocheted off the sturdy metal. Now that the men were advancing on him he began to fight, but there seemed to be too many. How would he catch the train now?

Then he heard it. The familiar chugging and whistling of the train was approaching ever closer, all he had to do was get to the edge of the archway and make a leap of faith when it got close enough. He charged one of the soldiers that was in his way and threw himself over the edge. This was it. He just had to hope that he landed safely.


	3. Stay on the Tracks

Okay, so inspiration hit. Well, that and the fact that if I'd left it on that cliffhanger then I probably would have completely forgotten what I wanted to do next and curled up in a shaky little ball in the corner. So, uh... rejoice! It's another chapter, and it's longer than the last.

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><p>"Cloud never got here."<p>

The train's cargo hold had been silent up until Wedge had murmured that. He looked around at the others, wondering how they had all made it if an ex-SOLDIER hadn't managed to do the same. It didn't make sense. Had Cloud been on his own? He hadn't thought so, but perhaps he had split away from the group. Perhaps he'd wanted to... he didn't seem very invested in their mission, after all. But wouldn't he have wanted his money first? None of this added up. But then, perhaps...

"Wonder if he was killed?" It was as if Biggs had read his mind. The two of them turned to look at Squall. The man's face gave nothing away, they couldn't be sure whether he knew what had happened or not.

Squall was the slightest bit worried that Cloud had never showed up. Surely he couldn't have been that far behind? He hadn't thought twice about leaving him because he thought that the blond would have known his way around the city well enough to get back to the train with plenty of time to spare. He was a SOLDIER, after all, so he'd just figured he'd know the city. Had he taken a wrong turn, perhaps been gunned down by guards? No. If he'd had no trouble in the reactor then he sure as hell wouldn't have had a reason to go down so easily once they were out. He shook his head, frowning a little. Why was he even thinking about this? It was none of his business, he barely knew the man and had no real reason to care. Barret's voice soon snapped him out of his own thoughts.

"No way! That boy's made of tougher stuff. Probably tryin' to show off like a little asshole. Damn SOLDIERs..." When Tifa had asked him to hire Cloud he'd had no idea he'd be this damn unreliable. He clenched his fist, smacking it on a cargo crate that had been stowed away in the train compartment that they were in.

When they heard a thump on the roof of the train car the group barely looked up. It was quite regular for the occasional piece of debris to fall from the tunnels as they were far less well made than the routes on the upper plate. The noise had caused Jessie to jump slightly, but there were no further reactions from the rest of the group.

"So, say he does come back..." Biggs seemed to be thinking through what he said carefully. He didn't want to believe that something had managed to take Cloud out, not when he was one of the strongest people their group had at the moment. Squall was useful, but the more battle-hardened mercenaries they had on their side the better. He'd paused for a moment before continuing, "Do you think he'll keep fighting for us? 'Til the end?"

Barret snorted, simply shrugging, "The hell would I know? It ain't my damn business. Kid can do what he wants." He didn't want to put too much stock in Cloud's loyalty, not when the SOLDIER seemed so utterly uninterested in their mission. It was best not to get his hopes up when they'd probably be dashed if he did. As long as Squall seemed interested in continuing that was the main thing. The brunet seemed to understand the importance of their work, perhaps because of his desperate struggle against the sorceress a few years prior. He seemed to be the more mature of the two at the moment.

Wedge sunk down a little where he was currently sitting, his sigh deflating him a little. He'd sounded like a sad balloon. Perhaps it was best not to bring Cloud up again. Talk of the SOLDIER, however innocent, seemed to be met with a fairly bad response from Barret, "So... what about our money?" He seemed hopeful that they were going to get paid something, they all had families depending on the extra income after all. Times were tough financially in the slums. They always were. However, he was quick to realise the mistake he'd made in asking when Barret smashed his hand against the crate once more. Touchy subject. It seemed like the best plan of action for the moment was just to keep his head down.

Suddenly, the train door slid open. Everyone gasped in shock at the noise, the roaring of the air whipping into the train car from moving at such a high speed. The last thing they were expecting, of course, was for someone to jump in.

"Cloud!" The SOLDIER looked shocked as there was a chorus of his name, but did his best to play it off in a cool manner by running his fingers through his hair before shutting the door. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie seemed very impressed; Barret and Squall less so.

Cloud could tell that Barret and Squall were annoyed. What was the harm in inflaming them a little more? He looked around at the three in front of him, a slight smirk playing across his lips, "Thought I'd drop in. Looks like I'm a little late."

"The hell took you so long? What's with this big scene, you just tryin' to piss me off?" Barret was rather agitated and his voice was louder than was strictly necessary. After remembering where they were and why he couldn't really shout like that he did his best to calm down. He was still grumbling though, "The hell you tryin' to pull... no need to be such a damn show off."

Squall was pretty irritated himself, although he did keep it to himself. He'd had no reason to be worried in the first place, but when he'd been thinking about the blond been missing or worse it had been difficult to stop himself. Had he just been planning that grand entrance the whole time? He was so selfish! The SeeD folded his arms and looked away, not wanting to let himself get as hotheaded as he was. It was made worse, however, when Cloud next spoke.

"What can I say? That's just what I do. Not like it did any harm." Oh, how Squall wanted to wipe that annoying little smirk off Cloud's face. He knew exactly what he was doing, it was obvious that he just wanted to get a rise out of either him or Barret, maybe even both. Well, he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. He snorted softly and leant against the stack of crates he'd been standing next to, simply examining his fingernails and acting as if none of this was bothering him at all. If there was one thing he'd become skilled at in the last couple of years, it was keeping his emotions hidden if he needed to. It seemed like Barret wasn't nearly as controlled, though.

"The hell d'you mean, that's just what you do? Ain't you got any idea how worried you got us all? Don't you care about anyone but yourself? Goddammit, Cloud!" He punched the wall of the train car with quite a lot more force than he'd been hitting the crates with; he would have splintered the wood completely with the force of his blow.

Cloud didn't stop smirking just yet, for some reason he was just in a mood where he liked to mess with people just a little. It was strange, he'd had this feeling ever since he'd gone and helped that girl up when she'd been pushed down onto the street. Still, no point in thinking about it too much. "You were worried about me? How lovely." He went and patted Barret's shoulder in a comforting fashion, mocking him just a tiny bit. It was obvious that the man had no idea how to react though, just standing there dumbly with a look of mixed confusion and anger on his face.

"You... y'know what? You can consider your pay docked! The hell you acting so weird for?" He moved away from Cloud, heading towards the door to the passenger cars instead, "C'mon, let's get outta here. Don't sit too close!" He threw the door open which resulted in quite a clang, then stormed off through it to go and sit in an empty space. Squall followed after him, although he was much less violent in the way that he did it.

Cloud sighed slightly and the smirk left his face. Well, that was annoying. Even less money. How was he supposed to get out of this dump if he hadn't enough gil to even get him out of the city? It looked like he'd be working here for longer than he'd thought. That wasn't all bad though, if he really thought about it... it wasn't like he'd decided what he was going to do with himself once he had the money to forge his own path.

His thoughts were soon interrupted by the three congratulating him. He was surrounded by babbles of, "That was so cool, ex-SOLDIER!" along with plenty of other cheers and compliments. Apparently he'd left quite an impression on Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. They were just going to expect him to do more now. Great.

Soon enough they all left him alone, allowing him to walk through to the nearest passenger car in peace. He wiped his face off once he realised that it was quite mucky from being exposed inside the grimy tunnels that he had been taken through before he'd managed to slip down into the cargo car.

As he made his way through what was essentially a thin walkway lined with seats, he took a glance around at his surroundings. The other passengers on the train seemed quite worried, murmuring to each other furtively about what had taken place that night. One man was even holding up a newspaper that seemed to have a speculative headline about whereabouts of AVELANCHE, going on to talk about, among other things, how they were a menace to society at large. Cloud shot the man holding it an extra long stare, watching as he cowered behind his newspaper. He wondered if the man suspected him; he did have a huge sword mounted on his back after all. Or perhaps he'd just taken a look into his eyes and realised that he was a SOLDIER. He knew some people were quite intimidated by them, and probably for good reason.

He'd looked around for a bit more, but soon enough Barret decided he was being a bit too conspicuous walking around and staring at people, so he pulled him down next to him. Cloud frowned slightly, not really finding it to be all that fair. Squall had been able to choose where he wanted to sit, and so had all of the others. How come he got pulled down just because he wanted a little bit of a look around? Apparently curiosity wasn't allowed. He opened his mouth to protest this, but Barret cut him off before he could say anything.

"You're actin' like a damn kid! Just siddown and shut it, okay?" He folded his arms, in no mood for any kind of argument. He'd actually preferred it when Cloud was being quiet and moody, it meant he got himself into less trouble as evidenced by what had happened earlier. It seemed like he needed to talk with him, and perhaps Squall too, about the importance of what they were doing. He beckoned the SeeD over and, once they were both sat down, began to speak, "Look out there." He pointed out of the window behind them, getting them both to turn and look up at the concrete lid that covered the slums. "Y'see that? Completely blocks out the sun, sky, everything. Most people here ain't even seen it before. Imagine that, never havin' seen the damn sky even once in your life." He looked at the two again, noting the expressions on their faces. Squall looked really quite sobered by the thought, remorseful even for what these people had never experienced. Even Cloud had a very slight flash of guilt cross his features before he covered it with an emotionless mask.

"It's... kind of unsettling. Having another city up there, floating above this one," Cloud murmured. He'd never really thought of it that way before, never considered what the lives of the people down here could be like. Such a simple thought had never occurred to him.

"More like crushing it," Squall added as he looked over at Cloud. That was what it seemed like to him. The people of the slums were being boxed in, shut away in this tiny little contained world to live difficult lives. It didn't seem fair at all. Did he have the power to stop it? He'd stopped sorceresses, all sorts of things, but keeping the company from draining the entire planet of its last breath? There were only a handful of them up against an army of thousands. It didn't seem possible.

They both looked up when Barret chuckled quietly, shaking his head, "Damn, you two. Just full of surprises, ain'tcha?" His gaze once again turned to the window, to the grey, industrial structures around them, "All those people on the upper plate? They're causin' nothin' but suffering for all of us. Why? Do they deserve to make us breathe in all the dirty, polluted air just 'cus they got more money?"

Squall frowned, "No. That doesn't seem right." He couldn't imagine the lives the people down here must lead, being walked all over like this. How could they stand it? Surely they could get out, move to another town nearby.

Cloud piped up with a question, for once more out of curiosity rather than just trying to make Barret angry in some way, "Then why don't they just move up onto the plate? There's probably room, right? If not, then there's always other towns." He hoped that the man wouldn't take the question the wrong way.

"I dunno, plenty of reasons. People down here don't got the money to get outta here, y'know? It's a hard living. Others, well. You form an attachment to where you grow up, where your families grew up even. It gets hard to leave when you think about it that way." Barret sighed, thinking of all of the reasons why that just wasn't an option for people. It was all very well telling people to move, but some just didn't have the means or the inclination to get out of a bad situation. It wasn't a decision anyone but themselves could make.

Cloud nodded slowly, "I guess so... it's kind of like this train." Both Squall and Barret gave him a confused look, not really getting where he was going with that. He sighed and tried to elaborate as best he could, "It just can't run anywhere other than where its rails take it. It's on a predestined path, guided by others rather than itself." He didn't know where the thought had come from or why he'd ended up saying it aloud. It had just seemed quite apt at the time; the image had resonated with him somehow. The others didn't get time to ask further as the train began to slow to a halt. He got up before the others and was the first to head out, leaving them alone.

As soon as Cloud was gone, Squall turned to Barret and murmured, "That's not what I would've expected to hear out of him." Was Cloud actually developing a conscience? That was probably for the best, if he'd still acted so cool and uncaring about what was going on in this city even after hearing something like that he may not have been able to keep himself calm.

Barret chuckled slightly, shaking his head, "Nope. Maybe he'll come 'round after all." He got up onto his feet, "Let's get outta here. This is the final stretch, but we still gotta get ourselves back home." Even now it was best to be careful, especially if the papers were true and Shinra really were starting to close in on their location.

Outside of the train, Cloud was feeling more confused than ever. Why did he care so much? He'd told himself he shouldn't, that there was no point in getting involved with people like this. If he started caring then it would probably just cause trouble. He didn't know why he had that feeling but he couldn't deny how strong it was.

After what would make anybody else feel much more focused on what the right path to take was, it just left him feeling more conflicted than he'd felt in a long while.


	4. Pensive

Welp, this chapter's kind of... eh. I dunno, maybe it's just me. I couldn't really think of another way to write it though so here it is. Kind of short again, but there wasn't much of a way to add in more detail. I should stop complaining about a chapter before you've even read it though, so let's revise all of this!

This chapter is clearly the best chapter you will ever read.

There. All better. You may commence to read.

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><p>Cloud's moment of confusion was soon interrupted by the others. They had all filed out of the train in their own time, not rushing like the blond had done because, now that they were at the home stretch, there was no reason to rush. Barret and Squall were bringing up the rear in an effort to make sure that everybody was safely off the train at about the same time. They all gathered together, although Cloud didn't quite see why they needed to do so after he heard what Barret had to say.<p>

"Awright you lot. We did good today, but you better not get lazy, y'hear? We still got plenty to do! C'mon, we'll meet back at the hideout." The burly leader barely gave anybody time to even respond, instead charging off on his journey towards their hideout. His three lackeys soon followed, excited about getting back to the bar and congratulating themselves on a job well done. Besides, there were still plenty of new plans that they needed to go over after today's success. Cloud did wonder how they managed to run off so fast whilst leaving him and Squall standing there with the slightest air of bewilderment about them. They were supposed to be the fastest members of the team after all.

"I guess we should get back," Cloud murmured, not wanting to stand there in a repeat of the awkward silence that had befallen them earlier. It always seemed awkward when they were lumped together every single time and he really wasn't in any mood for it when he was brooding like this.

Squall nodded in agreement, deciding to give a response even after their little contest about which of them was tougher earlier. He was hardly going to hold a grudge about it since he'd found it much more amusing than the blond had. The whole affair had been less awkward for him. "Sure. Let's go." He didn't really give Cloud time to follow him though, instead heading off down down to the intertwined streets of the seventh Sector with practised speed.

Cloud had made his way to the bar alone that evening, walking through the dusty, unpaved streets back to their hideout with little complaint. After what had been quite a taxing day it was good to have some time alone amongst the waning light of the street lamps dotted along each of the pathways. The incident he'd had at the reactor still weighed heavily on his mind, as did the conversation with Barret on the train earlier. While he didn't want to let these things get to him and would instead prefer to focus solely on just getting his next pay check, it was hard not to retreat into his mind and have all of these events dwelling on his conscience.

Because of all of this he'd been quite distant when Tifa had greeted him in the bar and had said very little when Barret was telling everybody of his next plan. There wasn't a lot for him to say and he just wanted to hear what they had to do and then get out of there. As soon as they were finished in the meeting room he left the bar, refusing the offer of a drink from his childhood friend on his way out, and instead settled on one of the tables outside. Now that he was sat down he let out a sigh, his body slumping. Probably not the best idea to let his guard down when he was sitting around outside.

"Well you fled pretty quickly, didn't you?" Instantly he was alert again, looking around in bewilderment for the source of the noise. That SeeD was standing there, leaning next to the door that he'd just closed behind himself almost silently. The blond hadn't realised the man had seen fit to follow him outside so he couldn't help but be shocked.

Cloud shook his head, looking away again now that he knew who it was that was disturbing him, "I needed some fresh air." It was true, and it didn't help that all of the people talking in there had given him a bit of a headache. He didn't think he would have been able to spend much more time in there before having to excuse himself regardless of whether or not he had so much to think about.

"Oh? So do I." The slight smirk playing across Squall's lips showed that he wasn't just going to leave the blond alone, that was for certain. The former SOLDIER made more of an effort to sit up and not look so down now that he had company. There was no way he was showing his feelings in front of anyone else. While he'd been hoping that they could just relax into the silence he so craved it seemed that the brunet saw fit to carry on this very bare conversation, "So, you're just in this for the money, right? Even after all that stuff on the train?" When Cloud glanced over at the other man it was obvious that he was watching him, and expecting an answer too.

"I'm in this for as long as they pay me. I've got to live somehow," the blond murmured. After giving his reason he watched Squall for some kind of response with piercing eyes, hoping that this would be enough for him and he'd perhaps stop talking. All he wanted was a bit of peace.

All he had earned was a soft snort with a hint of amusement to it. "So you know the planet's dying, but all you care about is earning enough gil to stay in a dishevelled old inn and be left alone?" After everything the man had done to keep everybody safe years ago he found it was his duty to help out this time. It was hard to understand why someone else wouldn't want to. Taking that stance just seemed selfish to him.

Cloud's eyes narrowed at that. He'd never shared his plans for after he got enough money to split. Did he even have plans? He'd never really thought about it, the only part he'd really got down was becoming a mercenary to get himself some cash. As for what he'd do with it... "I don't know." The blond shook his head and tried to get his thoughts together before continuing, "I just... I want to get out of here." The blond had to look away when he felt Squall's eyes on him again, boring into him.

"Right." The brunet's tone had changed. He didn't seem to favour that answer and Cloud couldn't help but wonder why it wasn't satisfactory. Was it selfishness showing through in his words, or was he just confused? Everything was so hazy right now and it was difficult to think about what it was he really wanted.

They fell into silence for a long while. Neither of them really knew what to say to the other, too unpractised at conversation to come up with anything that could better explain the situation. The slums were getting darker now, the lamps that lit them starting to be extinguished to show the residents that it was time for them to settle into their homes. Squall stretched his arms out in front of him with a sigh and, once he was ready, reached for the door handle. When his hand closed around it he glanced back at Cloud and tried to think of something to say.

"Well, I'll leave you in peace. Look after yourself." The words were met with silence.

Squall shook his head and quickly disappeared into the bar. What had possessed him to say that? It was harder to hide the slight concern he felt for the blond than he'd thought. He knew what had caused it, of course. When he'd arrived the former SOLDIER hadn't looked like he was in at all good shape, and after hearing about the state he'd been in when Tifa had found him he'd wondered whether the man would be cut out for these missions at all. It was stupid of him to actually say something like that though, especially when he knew the blond didn't seem to remember a thing about the way he'd been found a couple of days ago. Cloud's memory was definitely a cause for at least some worry.

The brunet found that he could justify his thoughts with the fact that he was a former commander and had every right to be concerned if one of the people in his team seemed troubled. That was a good enough excuse for now, anyway, enough to help him get to sleep...

Left there in a state of confusion at the other man's words, Cloud sat out in the chilly night air in something of a daze. That little chat he'd had with Squall hadn't helped his poor, aching mind already being weighed down with all kinds of thoughts one bit. All it had given him was another obstacle: What did he want to do if he was to part ways with AVALANCHE? Leap into more and more dangerous jobs as long as the pay was enough to warrant it, stay in grimy, unkempt rooms at inns thanks to that being all he could afford? He could travel, perhaps, but then it would just be the same story all over again in a different place.

Perhaps he really would have to latch onto this group for as long as possible. It was dangerous but that was something he could easily cope with. Maybe he could come around to this ridiculous world-saving idea that the others seemed to be so enamoured with if given enough time. Did he want that, though? Shinra could be a grave enemy and he wasn't sure if he fancied giving his life to such a cause. But then, if they failed they'd all be dead anyway...

The blond shook his head as if to clear his mind of all of the thoughts crammed inside it, slipping down off the table and getting to his feet. It was getting late and he needed his rest if he was going to be fully functional tomorrow. Now that he'd resigned himself to sleep he headed inside quietly to the room he had been staying in for the past few days, being sure not to make enough noise to wake anybody who may have already slipped away to bed.

For Cloud, it was a very long night.


	5. Bustin' up my Rhythm

It's been a delay considering I usually hope for about one update a week, but I was ill from Monday to Friday last week so it just didn't end up happening. So yeah, I'll try and stay on top of that from now on so that we actually end up getting somewhere. I know that I want to get to the Honeybee Inn already so I'll use that as an incentive!

Also, chapter fluctuation? Me? Never.

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><p>The morning's light, provided by the many street lamps stationed around the slums to give the residents some semblance of a day and night routine, streamed through the slightly crooked blinds and across the blond's pale cheeks. As he woke Cloud swore softly under his breath and scrunched his eyes up a little bit more tightly in an attempt to block out the intrusive shine. It felt like he'd only slept for mere minutes, although it was likely to be at most a few hours, thanks to how long it had taken him to finally evade his thoughts and drift off into the most peaceful slumber he could manage with the noise of two other people sleeping close to him in the fairly airless, stuffy bedroom.<p>

When he had eventually returned to the cramped room late the night before the other two men had already been resting but, judging by the empty bed and the second spare mattress on the other side of it also being vacated, it seemed that he was the last to rise and neither had gone to the trouble of waking him. He wasn't surprised. Barret was hardly a morning person and had most likely stumbled off as soon as he was dressed and had washed in the sink to say goodbye to Marlene. Once he'd done that he usually took himself up to the bar proper to check on their plans and rouse himself from sleep with the most heavily caffeinated beverage he could find.

As for Squall... well. It was probably for the best that he hadn't been woken by him after the conversation they'd shared the night before. One thing he didn't appreciate was people questioning him and it was obvious that after the comment he'd made about his reasons for going along with the group he'd been judged quite unfairly by the brunet. Why should he have to explain himself to anyone anyway? It was none of their business what his ideals were, what he chose to do. The fewer people involved with his life the better. He closed himself off for a reason, and that reason was to be alone. Solitary. Running with a pack wasn't his style. That way he didn't have to be burdened by other people's problems, their worries and constant cries for help and attention.

There wasn't much time for luxuries such as staying in bed and dwelling on moments that had already passed so Cloud soon cut himself short and instead heaved himself out of bed groggily. He'd wake properly soon enough thanks to the mako in his blood speeding along such processes so he paid the tired feeling no mind and instead went about getting himself ready to leave. While he was stuck in this tiny little bar he had neither time nor the luxury of heated water this early in the morning so a proper shower was out of the question. Instead the blond cleaned up in the sink like the others had done before him. Now that he was ready he lifted his sword onto his back and slowly headed down to the meeting point of the bar.

The others had already gathered. While he didn't approve of the fact that Tifa was joining them today for several reasons, the fact that she would be leaving Marlene all on her own in an open bar chief among them, there was little he could do to dissuade her so instead he stood there quietly while Barret went over their plan of action for today for the umpteenth time. Rather than listen he simply sighed internally and waited for the reminder to be over. A former SOLDIER like him didn't need a recap; the moment he got a mission, he memorised it.

When he glanced over at Squall it became apparent that he was away with the fairies too. The brunet definitely had the air of authority about him to pull it off though, able to trick people into thinking that he was paying attention to needless recaps with practised ease with his proud, focused stance and manner. The SeeDs probably had to listen to things like this a lot in their line of work.

The flicker of movement he saw just before the others were about to make their way out pulled the blond out of his own thoughts and he followed quickly and coolly. Anyone else would have thought he'd been paying attention for the entire time, even though he had remained silent throughout. Luckily for him Squall had moved at much the same time so, while he was stuck with the brunet for longer than he strictly appreciated, it meant that Tifa hurried along with Barret instead of sticking with him. While she did long to spend as much time as possible with her childhood friend she at least had the professionalism to recall that Barret generally preferred to have an even enough amount of the stronger members on each side of the three who mainly dealt with the logistics of their missions. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie's jobs were just as important as their own even if they weren't up their fighting Shinra head on and losing any one of them could be a critical hit to their chances of success.

Even when they all split up on their way to the train station they stayed in their smaller groups and Cloud was at least merciful that Squall had decided not to question him further on the topics of the night before. In fact, he seemed to be paying very little attention to him at all and was instead striding ahead and leading the way to the platform. The blond wasn't sure whether or not to be offended by that. It was strange, he preferred for people to leave him alone yet when this brunet treated him like he was some follower who was hardly even there he was left feeling curiously annoyed. Regardless, he wasn't going to say anything. Acting like a pouty child just because he wasn't even being looked at by someone he couldn't care less about was rather below him. He did have some pride.

Much to Cloud's relief, the rather brisk silence that had permeated their journey to the main platform was broken when they met up with the others. They weren't being loud by any means, not wanting to draw attention to themselves, but there was some very quiet chatter amongst the group while they all made sure that they had brought the special I.D.s that Jessie had prepared for each of them the night before. If they were going to ride this train to the Sector Five reactor then they needed the custom made identification. While they were going to be leaving the train before it reached the checking point anyway, such things would save them from any surprise searches on the way. It seemed ridiculous for there to be no security measures the moment they got into one of the train carriages but they were hardly going to complain when it was an oversight that they could so easily exploit.

Once the train had safely rolled into the station the group climbed aboard, the fighters peppering themselves around one of the further back carriages on the train while Biggs, Wedge and Jessie stayed near the front to keep a better eye on when the security check barriers were coming up. Even though Barret had their assurance that he'd be informed of when to bring the others through and leave he still only trusted his own eye and kept craning his head back to look through the windows so that he could check on their surroundings. Tifa pointing out that they weren't even moving yet so there was little point in doing so didn't seem to do anything towards stopping him. All it awarded her with was their grumpy leader grumbling about how she was, "Bustin' up his rhythm."

Cloud sat in silence near the front of the train carriage that the four of them had settled in, wanting to keep far away from the others if possible. Just when he'd started to settle and relax as much as he could allow himself while he was on this mission the brunet decided to crash the party. He couldn't hold back a sigh of irritation when Squall sat down next to him after making sure that the others had all blended themselves in as best they could.

"What? We arrived together, it's only common sense that I sit with you as well." For some reason that Cloud couldn't quite understand, the brunet sounded the slightest bit smug. Unfortunately he had to admit that the man had a point, so he didn't really protest. It did tend to annoy him how Squall always had an answer for everything though, not to mention the way that he always seemed to be leading recently whenever the two of them were together. It seemed the proud lion was starting to take charge more now that they were working together more often. Well, he wasn't content to be a follower...

During their journey the blond had been left to stew in his surliness for quite a while. He was only shaken from his thoughts when things took a turn for the worse.

The red lights that were flashing now were dizzying in their intensity and the voice that accompanied them to bark out a warning was computerised, grating and had a slightly static quality that was as unpleasant as the message that it relayed to the panicking compartment, "Type A security alert. There are unidentified passengers confirmed. You are ordered not to leave your seats while a search of all train cars is conducted." The message was repeated but none of the rebels were listening any more. That was all that they needed to hear to know that it was time to scarper.

Barret had leapt out of his seat already by the time that Jessie had burst into the compartment and the others had followed suit mere moments afterwards. She looked anxious and harassed, incredibly nervous about the situation.

"We've got trouble! We need to get out of here, hurry!" The young woman's voice was urgent and none of the rebels felt it necessary to second guess her. It was obvious that they had only minutes, if that, to get off the train and any further speech would be wasting valuable seconds that could be spent high-tailing it out of there.

With that the five of them, Jessie included, began to dash back up to the front of the train. No matter how quickly they moved it seemed that the security was onto them because every time they moved from one compartment that was about to be locked down, no matter how much time they'd had left until the doors trapped them, it always seemed like it automatically began to count down in the next train car too.

"We're just lucky there were no SOLDIERs on the train," Cloud muttered quietly as they ran. They'd really be in trouble if there were and this would have become an even more dangerous situation than it already was. Their escape probably would have been futile. He'd not expected anybody to hear him so he was surprised when Squall turned back to him as he pelted down the corridors and shot him a glare.

"Perhaps you should stop boasting about how _amazing _SOLDIERs are all the time and run a bit faster. You're slowing us down." The words came out a low, commanding growl. The brunet had officially had enough of the blond's attitude both on and off missions, so holding back after such a pointless remark had proven too much for him.

The blond was a bit shocked after being reprimanded like that but, instead of arguing further and jeopardising their chances at safety, simply did as he was told. He hated to follow orders like that from somebody who wasn't even in charge but stepping out of line would prove too hazardous. One thing he didn't need was to be caught by Shinra. Not like this. Still, that had stung. Being scolded by the brunet was, in an odd way that he was rather unsure of thinking about too hard, embarrassing even if he knew that the others wouldn't have been paying enough attention to hear.

They remained silent for the rest of the journey up to the front of the train except for the heavy breathing that the exertion of running so quickly had caused. The moment they got there Barret let out a noise of exhilaration and relief. They'd managed to outrun it. He wrenched the door open with one hand and looked back at the others, "C'mon, we dive out and we're home free! I'll follow you guys out, so get out here and jump!" As the leader, he felt it his duty to stay there until the end and make sure the others didn't get hurt or captured during the security check.

Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were the first to jump, the latter going first after being given some help with it. After that they sent Tifa who didn't have nearly as much trouble thanks to having much less of an aversion to getting a few bruises. Someone else had to jump soon and when it came to that point, Squall looked at Cloud with a slight smirk on his face.

"Go on, jump. If you need a little help you can always ask."

After that remark Cloud couldn't stop himself from glowering at the brunet. What was he trying to imply? Was he saying that he might need a little help with the jump, just like the girls had? First he'd started subtly trying to take charge, then snapped at him, and now this. While he would prefer to cause a fuss and make Squall go first for trying to make him out to be some sort of wuss who couldn't even make it out of a train, Barret was getting agitated by all of this waiting around.

"Just get yo' spiky ass outta here and quit wasting our time!"

It was probably best if he went. After shooting Squall one more warning glare, he closed his eyes and threw himself out of the moving train. Despite all of the setbacks that had waylaid them, the group had overcome them and managed to get back on track. Now they just had to get to the Sector Five reactor.


	6. King Vermin

Welp, here's another chapter. I'm gonna try and update a bit faster this week because I have a cunning plan for Sector Six now but I want to get there faster, so I'll probably try and knock out at least one more this week and see how we fare. I've been working on length too, so this is a bit bigger than last time still. Now I just have to beat out Chapter 1!

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><p>"You tellin' me to squeeze in there?" That was the response they received from their leader about their little plan to get out of this mess. It wasn't encouraging.<p>

Earlier on, once everybody had made it off the train and landed somewhere along the edge of the subway tracks, Barret had given them a small speech telling them not to let their guard down before sending them all along through the tunnel. The three more technologically inclined members of the group had gone a different way, using their disguises to their advantage, so that they could have everything that would be needed ready ahead of time.

While Cloud was still simmering with resentment towards Squall after the way he'd been acting on that train he'd decided to put their squabble to one side for now and at least try and work with him if need be. It wasn't easy to fight as a team when one member of it would rather turn on another. With that in mind he'd travelled with the others quietly, but in a less sulky, brooding manner than he would have done otherwise.

However, they were in for a less than satisfactory surprise when they reached a certain intersection of the tunnel. Their route was blocked by a grid of criss-crossing laser beams that blocked their path entirely. If touched, they would most likely summon security to their current position within minutes. What could they do?

Both he and Squall had spotted it at the same time. A small ventilation duct with the grate that would usually be covering it dropped down on the floor beneath the hole. It obviously didn't see much use if there had been no repairs made to weld the cover back over the hole and, thanks to that, it could just be their ticket out of this little mess that they'd found themselves in.

Unfortunately when they'd mentioned it, that had been the response they'd been given. So there they were.

Cloud wasn't going to take no for an answer. The hole wasn't that small, he was sure if Barret would just suck it up and try it out then he'd be able to fit through despite the fact that it would be a bit of a squeeze. If safety was another thing that their leader might bring up, then it was his job to quell that fear. Rather than dance around the subject of how they could get in he crouched down, held his face up to the duct, and peered inside. They wouldn't get stuck. While it was old and didn't see much, if any, use any more, there was nothing clogging it so there was no chance of going a little way down and then finding that they could go no further.

After he straightened up he looked around at the group and cleared his throat, speaking with authority, "We're going down. It's not as if we have any other option."

The blond wasn't exactly a fan of his own idea either, although he'd never admit it. Small spaces gave him the creeps. It wasn't something that he could remember bothering him so much previously, but it had manifested now and he was hardly relishing the idea of crawling into that tiny vent. The difference between him and Barret was the fact that he was actually going to do it anyway, so he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"We're going in. I'll go first, make sure it's okay." Cloud had decided to take charge before Squall had the opportunity to volunteer to go first. In his opinion the brunet was letting the fact that Barret seemed to trust him more than he did the blond go to his head and that was why he kept taking the lead whenever they were walking alongside each other. This probably wasn't true in the slightest and the problem he had was more likely to be created by a mixture of the fact that Squall was already a respected commander and just had the bravado and personality more suited to lead. Either way the blond refused to see reason.

Still, nobody protested when he made the decision apart from a few grumbles from Barret that were more directed at the idea of having to squeeze into that ventilation shaft as opposed to the blond's attitude.

Now that he was sure there were no objections Cloud crouched back down and carefully slid his body into the vent in such a way that he would have the maximum amount of space around him that he could use to move more quickly and efficiently. It meant keeping his body quite low down rather than crawling in the usual way and letting his back press up against the top of the tunnel. The illusion of the extra space around him helped to keep him calm while he was shimmying through this cramped, closed in space and meant that he could move quickly enough to keep distance between himself and the person following behind.

Squall had been the one to crawl into the vent behind him. It seemed that Barret still needed to psyche himself up before he took the plunge and went inside and there had been an agreement to let Tifa go last. While they wouldn't usually leave her bringing up the rear, in this situation it was probably for the best since she had decided to wear a rather short skirt to their mission today and wouldn't be too comfortable with having anybody behind her. Nobody was going to look, but she'd still insisted.

* * *

><p>Their trip through the ducts and up into the reactor was fairly uneventful for the most part. It was the usual fare, making their way through a structure quite similar to the last whilst fighting whatever puny guards were stationed in their way. Now that they had the layout memorised that only made it easier, although there were a few differences along the way that added some interest. Now that they had Tifa along with them the fights only went by faster so they were making very good time.<p>

They soon made it to the core and did a quick once over of their explosives to check that they had the timing right and they weren't duds. While Cloud was waiting during this check he sighed, looking around the place. While he was being paid a decent amount of money for this, wouldn't it end up getting old?

A sharp pain in his head interrupted his thoughts. He clutched at his head as if trying to wrench the intrusion from his mind. _Not again..._

All colour drained from his vision as the scenery around him twisted and reshaped into something similar, but certainly not the same. His viewpoint had changed, bringing him above as if he were clinging to some of the higher pipes and gears that were connected to the ceiling of this place.

Once everything stopped spinning he could properly see where he was. It was another mako reactor, but smaller, with only a metal bridge in between the entrance and the main rooms. The only thing that had retained its colour was the blood seeping across the walkway. The sheer amount of it was astounding and he could soon make out the two things that had caused it. A man, probably middle-aged, laid motionless just in front of the door that lead to the adjoining room. He was framed by blood, a gaping wound in his chest that seemed to re-emerge out of the other side of his body was obviously the cause. A few paces away was the weapon: a long, thin sword that, despite being used for such a brutal murder, seemed to be completely spotless.

Shocked by all of the blood, it took Cloud a few seconds to notice and recognise the girl kneeling next to the corpse. Tifa.

He couldn't make out what she was saying at first, the dull buzzing in his ears making it hard to tune in and focus. He managed to miss a few sentences but could hear by the time that she'd sat up.

"Sephiroth did this to you... didn't he?"

The blond no longer wanted to listen. This wasn't something he wanted to think about, to remember. That day, five years ago...

"Sephiroth... SOLDIER... Shinra..." All Cloud could do was watch helplessly as Tifa rose to her feet, quaking with both fury and the agonising pain of the loss of her father and shrieked, "I hate them all!"

_Sephiroth..._

That wasn't a name he wanted to hear.

"Damn it Spiky, get a hold of yourself!"

The blond snapped back to reality when he heard those words, quickly trying to quell the shaking in his hands. The last thing he wanted was to look weak. It was probably too late for that though, judging by the way that his legs had failed him and he was now on his knees in the middle of the reactor core. He'd not even noticed himself fall to the floor, already twisting into that hallucination before he'd had an opportunity to do anything but clutch his head. It had made no difference.

His brow furrowed slightly when a hand was offered to him. It was Squall's. Cloud looked up to see if it was being offered with his usual ever so slightly smug expression, but after searching his face he could only sense a bit of concern, so he took it and used it to heave himself up off the ground. He hadn't quite recovered enough to get up himself just yet so the help was appreciated.

Now that he was up, he looked towards Tifa. Should he say anything? Maybe... no. It wasn't worth it. Perhaps once he managed to gather his thoughts properly, but now if he brought up what he'd just seen to her right now then he'd most likely only plunge himself into further confusion.

Soon enough the bomb had been set. It was time to make themselves scarce. They ran back out to the bridge, but soon stopped in their tracks.

Infantrymen. There were plenty waiting there on the bridge, enough to give them a run for their money, but didn't seem to be doing a thing. They had their guns pointed towards the small group, but all stood aside as expensive shoes clattered behind them. That was the only thing that was breaking the silence that both the army and AVALANCHE had descended into. As soon as the source of the noise came to the front of the guard that he had set up it was obvious who had decided to grace them with his presence. The expensive suit and blond hair belonged to none other the President of the Shinra company.

"Hm... who do we have here? Oh, that group, what was the name... _DELUGE_?"

The fact that the President didn't even see fit to remember the name of their group ticked Barret off to no end, "AVALANCHE! You better not think about forgettin' it, neither!" Their burly leader had pushed himself to the front of the group and was shaking his fist at the President, slamming it down on the girder afterwards. While there were obviously more important things to worry about right now other than Shinra getting their name correct, such a flippant remark had really set him off.

Cloud moved forward and held a hand up in front of Barret to silence him. He was glaring at the President, his shining eyes boring into him with intense dislike, "Long time no see." Even if he wasn't too invested in the ideals that AVALANCHE members shared he certainly held no love for this man either and made that much painfully obvious.

The fact that the blond had stepped forward seemed to grab his attention. The President looked over him, raising an eyebrow and clearing his throat before he continued to speak, "Oh... it's you. You're that traitor. I can tell from the glow in your eyes and the fact that you're with all of these filthy vermin. I may need a little refresher, as you certainly don't ring any bells. Your name?"

"Cloud."

"Ah, yes. Do forgive me, but I'm hardly going to remember everybody's name. Well, not unless you were to become another Sephiroth." The mention of Sephiroth made the swordsman flinch slightly. That hallucination was still fresh in his mind, the reminder of what such a powerful man was able to do and the pain he could inflict upon others. If that was the alternative then he'd prefer not to have his name remembered.

Squall noticed that Barret was preparing to charge forward and so pulled Cloud back slightly. He could tell that he wasn't concentrating fully after what the President had just said and didn't want him getting in the way if something were to end up happening. He was doing it for his own good, even if the blond found such things a bit frustrating.

Barret was furious and the only thing stopping him from firing indiscriminately at the President and the guards that he'd brought with him was the fact that they were so ridiculously outnumbered that he'd never be able to win. Self preservation was key if they were going to live to fight the company another day. However, he couldn't hold back from yelling, "You better remember all our damn names, 'cause this place is going up with a bang pretty damn soon! Who's vermin now? You're the god damn **king** of vermin anyway, killin' the planet just to line your pockets with thick wads of cash!"

None of this seemed to ruffle the President's feathers. In fact, he simply yawned and dusted off his suit slightly with a look of distaste crossing his features, as if he were worried that simply being near the rebels was causing his expensive clothing to depreciate in value. This was all so below him. Once he was quite finished, he looked Barret right in the eye and smirked, "You are beginning to bore me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have dinner arrangements in half an hour that I simply must attend to. I am, of course, a very busy man. I'm sure that you understand." His last words dripped with sarcasm. He knew that these people could never even dream of having a lifestyle as rich as his own.

Barret went to run towards the President, but was soon dissuaded from doing so as a huge robot entered from behind the Shinra group. A helicopter had also hovered up to the walkway so that the man and his personal guards could get away to safety while the Weapon Development Department's latest little project dealt with the rebels.

The robot was incredibly tall, about twelve feet, and as wide as the walkway. When it charged at them they had no choice but to throw themselves out of the way, which unfortunately meant that the group had been split. Cloud had ended up on his own.

There was no time to lament the fact since they immediately charged into battle. If the robot was ready to kill them at any second then they had to be prepared to fight it to the death as well, and quick enough that they could actually get out of here in time too. The robot was equipped to attack from both sides, as it had extra artillery built into its back, but it was definitely weaker there with less armoured protection and no way of really blocking any incoming blows. The rebels decided to use this to their advantage, taking it in turns to distract the hulking lump of metal and bullets while whoever could get a good enough hit in would attack its weaker side. Any occasional bursts of magic were always a great help too, as a bolt spell always tended to frazzle the robot quite easily.

They were on a sure course to winning, but things just had to go wrong. They were so close to shutting it down when suddenly there was an enormous explosion that took out half of the walkway that they had been battling on. Barret, Tifa and Squall had the space to move away from it just in time, but Cloud had no such luck. By the time that the explosion had subsided all that could really be seen of him were his fingers gripping onto part of the collapsed rail and a couple of spikes that were just tall enough to poke out above him.

The blond looked down, almost immediately regretting it and instead staring up at the walkway above him. It was a long way down and he wasn't sure exactly what laid at the bottom. Was there any hope for him now? He couldn't be helped. There was no time to spare, if the others didn't get out now then they would have sealed their fate alongside him.

It was hard to think. Tifa's screaming while Barret was trying to drag her away from the scene was filling his ears and blocking any chance at thinking of a way out. Probably for the best. He wouldn't want to get his hopes up when there was no real way of getting out of this situation.

"This isn't the end. Go on without me, all of you! I'll be fine." They needed to get out of here. If he could just get up onto that walkway he'd be pushing them away, making them save themselves... of course, if he was up there with them then they wouldn't be having this problem. Barret and Squall at least seemed to listen to him, making sure to get Tifa out of there with them.

Now that he was alone, Cloud didn't have to hold up that stoic façade. He was worried, his hands were becoming slippery with sweat from the strain of trying to hang on. The bomb was going to go off any minute. He knew what he had to do.

Just seconds after the blond let go of the metal, the reactor core exploded. The force of it sent him soaring down through the upper plate and straight into the slums below. All he could do was hope that he didn't hit anything on his way down since there was no way of actually controlling himself enough to change his course if a pipe or piece of debris ended up in his path.

Everything was black, but the pounding in his head from the impact was enough to let him know that he was still alive. With that, he slipped into unconsciousness.


	7. You do Everything, huh?

Sorry about the huge wait, especially since I said I'd try and shove out another chapter earlier than usual last time! I've just been either really busy on any given day or so lethargic that I can't even think about writing on others. Still, I knuckled down today and finished this chapter that I started the other week. It's cool guys, we'll have a Squall chapter next.

I love Aerith's original characterisation in the game. She's all streetwise and experienced whereas these days she's the perfect princess for some reason. Shame, that.

* * *

><p>"<em>Can you hear me?"<em>

What was that? The voice sounded so familiar.

"Yeah..."

"_Looks like you're faring slightly better than you did back then. You've not even skinned your knees."_

"What do you mean, back then?" The blond was becoming more and more confused. Who was talking to him? What on earth were they trying to say?

_Just worry about yourself for now."_ The voice seemed to calm him completely at that point and rather than trying to interrogate it he was instead starting to do as it told him.

"I'll try."

"Oh! Would you look at that, he's moving!" Another voice joined the one calming him, but it wasn't quite as familiar. This was a woman's voice and sounded a lot more concerned, although the tone picked up in surprise at the end. Cloud was just starting to open his eyes when she spoke again, so as he blinked blearily to clear his vision he saw the girl bending down over him and watching his face with a furrowed brow, "Hello? Hello?"

The blond frowned slightly. She seemed quite familiar, although for some reason he couldn't quite place where he'd seen her before. He rubbed his forehead gently to help quell the aching in his head before he murmured, "Who are you?"

Now that he was more aware of his surroundings the blond realised that he was laying in the middle of a soft flowerbed, surrounded by pale flowers with the suns rays that must have been streaming in through a tear in the plate above them. Well, this wasn't the kind of thing that people saw in the slums every day. The ex-SOLDIER could have sworn that he'd been told that nothing could grow down here because the mako being drawn out of the earth beneath them had caused the soil to become drained, barren and lifeless.

As the girl stood to move out of his way Cloud sat up, rubbing his head a bit and checking his body over for bruises. There seemed to be some but he was rather resilient. However, even with his improved SOLDIER body he knew that he'd been lucky that nothing worse had become of him during that fall.

The blond could still feel the girl looking at him, and when he turned his gaze on her to see why she once again began to speak, "Hey, so... are you alright? In case you're wondering, you're in the Sector 5 slums." Cloud was grateful that he'd been told since otherwise he wouldn't have had any idea. He still wasn't too acquainted with the different areas and didn't think that he'd ever been somewhere like this before. "You fell through that gap in the roof so suddenly, it was quite scary actually. Lucky for you the roof and the flower bed seemed to break your fall."

Cloud was still a bit groggy and was only just about managing to concentrate on what she was saying for the moment. At least the talking was helping to keep him from zoning out entirely although it meant it was a bit harder to gather his thoughts. He was in a state of mild confusion after that voice had decided to pay him a visit. He'd heard it before, but every time something like that happened it still confused him no end. The warning voices and flashbacks only seemed to be increasing in their frequency and distracting him from matters at hand.

However, he was soon roused from all of this when he realised that this young woman might not take too kindly to the fact that he had continued to park himself right in the midst of what he could only assume were her flowers. He quickly got up and dusted himself off before moving to the side off the patch of rare foliage, looking faintly apologetic, "Oh... sorry. Are these yours?"

Luckily the girl didn't seem too bothered by the fact that he'd been sitting on them for a bit. It wasn't as if he'd chosen to do that as he'd not had much control when he was falling and, once he'd come to, he'd not even properly noticed the flowers or at least the implications of sitting on them.

"Oh, don't worry about it. The flowers are resilient. I mean, we are in a church, quite a sacred place." The flower girl sighed, gazing around the building while she tended to her flowers before looking at Cloud once again, "Apparently you can't grow flowers in Midgar, or even grass or trees. I don't know why they do it here, but I love this place."

After spending a bit more time with her flowers, making sure that they were all well tended to and not in any way damaged after having the blond so unceremoniously fall on top of them, she decided to jog his memory a bit. He hadn't brought it up yet so it was probably best for her to do so, "Hey, so... do you remember me?"

The blond furrowed his brow and began to regard the girl carefully as if that might help to jog his memory in some way. Well, luckily it worked. Soon enough it all clicked and he nodded, "Yeah, I think so. You were that girl who got knocked over in Sector 8 last night." It seemed that he'd got that right, judging by the way she chuckled quietly and nodded, and from the looks of things she glad that he seemed to remember.

The flower girl was quiet for a few moments while she tended to the plants, so the blond simply stood and watched for a short while. In fact, while he stood there his eyes almost seemed to glaze over for a while as he stood by the soothing, pastel coloured flowers that gave off a rather pleasing scent, so it was quite a surprise when the girl was suddenly behind him and bracing her hands on his back in a playful manner. When he looked back at her to question how in Gaia's name she had managed to sneak up on him so easily he was cut off just as he opened his mouth by a quiet giggle.

"Say, do you have any materia?"

Well, that was quite a jump from their previous discussion, enough of one to throw the ex-SOLDIER off for a few moments while he stopped to think.

"Sure, a few. They aren't exactly special these days, you can get them anywhere." Already he'd come across a shop where he could buy some of the more basic orbs that would allow him to cast basic offensive magic, along with one for healing, quite close to the bar. He could only assume that the same went for other sectors around Midgar and that such shops weren't all that special. The prices could get quite steep but he assumed that was just so that it kept more unsavoury characters from being able to purchase something potentially dangerous. He looked at the girl, who seemed to be touching something in her hair. The ribbon that fastened it, perhaps?

"Mine's special, though. Well, special in that it doesn't actually do anything." Oh, so that's what she must have been touching. She was keeping one of the small orbs in her ribbon, perhaps for safekeeping. That would make sense; such a place wasn't the first little nook or cranny that a thief would search for anything of value.

Still, Cloud wasn't one for tact. "You sure you just don't know how to use it?" He wouldn't put it past anyone any more, not after he'd had to explain to Barret before how to activate materia when it really was as simple as slotting it into his weapon or a bangle that he kept on his wrist. Most of either example were built with the slots already built in specifically for that purpose so surely it couldn't be that complicated of a concept to grasp.

Although the girl's brow furrowed slightly, when she spoke she didn't sound too offended, "No, I do. It's just that whenever I've tried using it, well... still no dice." She smiled and shrugged, taking a couple of steps away from the blond and clasping her hands behind her back, "But it's okay. I feel safe just having it with me, since it belonged to my mother and all." _Belonged._ Past tense, then. Cloud felt a twinge of guilt for bringing it up now in case it was a sore memory. The young woman didn't seem phased though, and instead looked skyward, peering through one of the holes in the roof.

"Say, do you feel like talking? I mean, as a way to catch up, I guess. Since we saw each other before but we never really got to speak at length, what with you being in such a hurry."

Cloud wasn't sure. He didn't know if he'd really have anything to talk about with her considering they'd only met so briefly before and he kind of felt they'd said enough to each other already while he'd been here. He did kind of need to be getting back. At the same time, she just seemed so familiar and it was difficult to go ahead and say that he really wasn't interested in talking and leave. Perhaps he could find something out from her? Something about the strange voices in his head...

After deliberating over his options in his head for a few moments, he sighed.

"I don't mind. Go ahead, talk away." It showed that, although he wasn't necessarily interested in starting a conversation with her, she could go ahead and talk to him about whatever she felt the need to if it was really that important. He felt that it was a decent enough compromise.

"Good! Wait here for a sec though, okay? I need to have one last check on the flowers, it'll take maybe a minute tops."

Well, perhaps she could have asked for his attention after she'd finished checking her flowers then. It seemed silly to ask him to talk to her and then just decide that she had other things to do. Well, he wasn't going to say anything. It didn't matter too much and it wasn't as if he really knew his way back to the bar at the moment, so there were no better places for him to be at this point in time.

The young woman knelt down by her flower patch and carried on with the last little bits and pieces that she needed to do to keep them healthy and happy. She hummed softly to herself while she did so, a light, pretty tune that seemed to fit this place. It was cut off with a soft gasp and Cloud looked around in surprise, only to see her looking back at him.

"Hey, wait. We don't even know each other's names yet, do we?" She had a point. Cloud had no idea who she was. "Well, my name's Aerith, and I'm a flower girl in the slums. It's nice to meet you..." As she trailed off she gestured with her hand expectantly, expecting the blond to supply her with his name.

"Cloud." Since she'd included her occupation, it would probably be best to do the same, "I do a little bit of everything." Perhaps he'd phrased that wrong, judging by the way that she'd burst into giggles. Yeah, perhaps mercenary would have been a better way of putting it, rather than making it rather ambiguous.

"Oh my, _everything, _huh?" Yep, he was going to regret that one. Aerith stifled another giggle before starting to treat things more seriously, "So a jack of all trades, right?"

"Yeah, I do whatever's needed." Oh dear. More giggles. He just couldn't describe it in a way that couldn't be taken in a more perverted sense. Maybe he should just drop the whole thing entirely...

However, when Aerith turned towards the door as she squirmed during her small fit of laughter, all mirth ceased. There was a figure standing in the doorway: a red-haired man that she definitely recognised. They were back for her.

"Hm... maybe this isn't the time." Even now Aerith didn't seem too worried, even though this mysterious man had just waltzed right into her church with a back up of Shinra infantrymen. He clearly couldn't be friendly so Cloud stepped in front of her as a guard of sorts. As he did so, the young woman regarded him in a more practical light before posing him a question, "Hey, Cloud. You'd make a great bodyguard, and you _do_ do everything, don't you?"

The blond glanced back at her rather than keeping his eyes on the intruder and nodded. He smoothed his hair back, his gloved fingers scraping back through golden spikes, before murmuring, "Yeah, that's right." He could see what she was getting at, "You want me to take you home, huh? It'll cost you." Since he assumed that she'd come up with payment in due time, rather than talk about the whole thing further he decided to confront the man in front of him.

"I don't know who you are, but..."

A flash of white.

"_I know you."_

"Wait... yeah. I know you." That uniform unmistakeably belonged to a Turk. The only question was why that had taken so long to remember, and what had caused that strange flash. These strange disconnects that he was having were only becoming more regular after that incident in the reactor. He'd never had problems before whereas now his mind was just driving him crazy with all of the cryptic messages that he kept receiving, but were never explained.

The redhead decided to address Aerith rather than this strange blond who seemed to have tasked himself with protecting himself, "Hey, babe. This new guy of yours is a little weird, don'tcha think?" This was hardly the first time that the flower seller had decided to bring in somebody to look after her when they came on their little visits, but usually she picked ones that seemed a little bit more, well... stable.

"Reno! Want him taken out?"

The Turk chuckled as he turned to the three infantrymen that were waiting, guns poised, beside him. "Nah, hang on. I ain't decided yet." He was still looking the blond over for now. This guy seemed to be wearing a SOLDIER uniform, too. First Class and everything. Why, though? This certainly wasn't any SOLDIER that he'd ever seen, and he'd known quite a few of them in his time.

Each and every one of the people there were roused from their thoughts and distracted from matters at hand when Aerith suddenly exclaimed, "No, don't fight here! I don't want you to ruin the flowers!" With that she pulled Cloud towards the back of the church, gesturing towards a small door that was close to one of the pews, "C'mon, there's the other exit. Hurry!"

The two of them ran into the adjacent room with the Turk and infantrymen hot on their heels. They'd run straight through the patch of flowers but even Aerith had to admit that that probably wasn't the most important thing that was going on right now.

As they were chased Cloud dragged the young woman along behind him, wishing that she could just speed up a little bit more since, although the soldiers that Reno had brought along with him had stopped moving, they were still shooting at them and he knew that they'd need to move fast if they were going to keep evading the bullets that were now ricocheting around the church.

There was a lurch in his stomach when he realised that there were huge gaps where the floor had just given way so, rather than allowing Aerith to run alongside him for longer, he scooped her up into his arms and jumped each gap himself. They couldn't afford to waste time and possibly have her not manage to make it over one of the the chasms. Now that he was solely in charge of their speed they were pelting it through the church and the guards just couldn't aim at them accurately enough any longer to cause them much bother and, once they made it up into the rafters of the church, they didn't stand a chance at getting hurt any more as Cloud jumped clear out of the church and onto the roof.

* * *

><p>They had made it.<p>

It seemed that all the excitement had taken its toll on Aerith because, as she regained her breath after the adrenaline rush that running for her life had given her, she began to laugh, "Ha haa... I guess they're looking for me again. Thought I was in the clear, too."

"So that's not the first time they've come after you, then?" How had she managed to evade them the previous times? The blond doubted that she could manage it by herself, the girl didn't exactly seem like the type to hold her own in a battle.

"I guess you could say that. There've been a couple of other incidents, nothing major."

"They're the Turks." Cloud just wanted to drum that into her head in case she hadn't known exactly who she was dealing with when those smartly dressed men turned up at the church. They were really bad news.

"Hmm..." She sighed slightly. Perhaps she'd already known that? Maybe he shouldn't state the obvious next time, but he'd had to make sure that she knew the dangers.

"Anyway, let's get going. I should take you home so that they don't manage to catch up to us." He did wonder where they'd gone now. Since he and Aerith were only hanging around on the roof of the church he was surprised that Shinra's employees hadn't decided to chase them further. All they would've had to do was go outside and snipe them while they were having that nice little chat of theirs. Had those people even been trying that hard?

* * *

><p>"Hey, Cloud. Were you ever in SOLDIER?"<p>

The blond turned to look at Aerith as they jumped across rooftops. He'd slowed down a few minutes earlier because she had been finding it too difficult to keep up with him when he rushed.

"I used to be. How'd you know that?" He could probably guess exactly how she could tell, but decided to ask anyway. Sometimes people who lived in the slums didn't have much knowledge about the give-away signs that could point towards someone being a SOLDIER.

"Your eyes, they have that unnatural glow. I've seen it before."

She'd met other SOLDIERS? The blond found that rather surprising. As far as he knew they didn't tend to come down below the plate very often, and even then it was usually only to clear out any monsters that had been driven wild by the pollution from the reactors that was pumped down here. That wouldn't have been the best time to stare at somebody's eyes and ask about the way they shined, so there must be another way she'd managed to bump into one.

"Oh, right. Yeah. From the mako. How did you know to check, though?"

"Oh, nothing. Let's go! C'mon, bodyguard, you're supposed to be protecting me!" With that, she ran off ahead, leaving the blond to catch up with her.

* * *

><p>After about ten more minutes of jumping across rooftops, showing disregard for the people who must be living in them by clattering over their roof tiles, the two of them hopped down onto a dirt track that had just started to split into a fork. One seemed to lead into one of the settlements in Sector 5, while the other lead off through more junk heaps, presumably towards other Sectors.<p>

"Hey, my house is over there. We should keep hurrying though, who knows if they've been following us."

While it wasn't impossible, Cloud highly doubted that they had. If they were then he was almost disappointed in the group that had been sent to steal Aerith away, since they had clearly done an appalling job of it.

The blond followed her into the Sector, having a glance around the area while he did so. It seemed pretty similar to Sector 7, perhaps a bit more low key since it didn't have any flashy bars. Some of the houses seemed to be made up of old, discarded trailers that people had cobbled together into something liveable. It seemed everywhere in the slums was most likely going to be just as junky as what he'd already seen. He'd only seen a few real houses so far in the week or so that he'd been here.

"Hey, Cloud! Come over here, there's something wrong with this guy."

Why was she telling him that? He held back a sigh and walked over to the girl he was travelling with. When she gestured into a ruined trailer he had a look, noticing a man lolling about on the floor groaning to himself. It was bad, sure, but he couldn't do anything about it so why should he spend time worrying about this man's plight?

"Aerith, I'm not a doctor. What do you expect me to do?"

"I guess you're right..." The flower girl sighed and shook her head, looking quite worried for the man who was clearly not right in the head. She reached out and checked him over, lifting his hand gently, "Hey, a tattoo. It's a number... wonder what it means?"

When Cloud didn't answer she just let out another exasperated sigh and left the trailer, holding onto his arm so that she could bring him along, "Come on, my house is this way."

* * *

><p>"I'm home!"<p>

They'd quickly made their way to a small cottage surrounded by flowers that was set a little way away from the rest of the slum nearby. It was strange how different it looked, how natural. There had even been running water nearby and the blond couldn't even begin to understand what that was doing there. Something to do with the water systems for the upper plate? It could be, but it was still a very odd thing for her to have in her back garden.

Once they were inside Aerith's mother had walked over, and seemed more wary when she realised that her daughter had brought a man in with her.

"Who's this? Were you followed again?" That always seemed to be the case when she brought a man home. At least they were always chivalrous enough to bring her daughter back all the way, "Please, just tell me you aren't hurt?" She had taken hold of her daughter's hands gently and was now checking her over for any signs of injury. The older woman was obviously not impressed when she was simply shrugged off and chuckled at affectionately.

"It's alright, really. I had Cloud with me so I got out just fine."

"Well... thank you, Cloud." Perhaps it was time to get the guest room ready.

Once her mother had disappeared upstairs, Aerith turned to the blond and asked, "So, what do you think you're going to do now?"

"Sector 7 isn't far from here, is it? I want to get back to the bar."

More laughter. "Didn't realise I was cutting into happy hour." She smiled and patted his shoulder gently, cutting off her giggles so that she could speak once more, "Tell you what, I'll show you the way."

The blond smirked and folded his arms, watching her. "Hmm, I dunno. Getting help from a girl's not really my style."

The gasp that resulted actually made him jump slightly, "Oh, that's it! I'm definitely going now!" Aerith turned away from him and called up the stairs, "I'm going to take Cloud back to Sector 7 now, I'll be back in a while."

"But dear..." the news didn't seem to impress her mother too much, who had just come downstairs to join them again. "Oh, never mind. But please, wait until morning. It's getting rather late and I don't want you going out on your own if you were followed earlier."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll head upstairs then. Cloud, your room's next to mine whenever you want to come up." She waved at the blond, then went upstairs to get herself some well deserved rest after a rather eventful day.

"You're from SOLDIER, aren't you? I can tell by your eyes."

The blond hadn't been expecting to be questioned further, especially not about his eyes again. He wondered if he should perhaps invest in some dark glasses.

"Yeah, I guess. I used to be, anyway."

"Look, I don't want to be rude, but... could you leave tonight, after she goes to sleep? Without telling her, of course. She's been hurt by a SOLDIER before."

It seemed that he wouldn't be getting a good night's sleep after all. He'd have to get back to the bar in the middle of the night and then collapse in that tiny room with the others again. He didn't have much of a choice otherwise. With a sigh and a nod, he too headed upstairs so that he could at least keep up a charade of staying the night for Aerith. She'd most likely be listening to hear the door to his bedroom close.

Once he was safely in the small, but cosy, guest bedroom, the blond threw himself onto the bed. It was worth trying to get himself a couple of hours of shut-eye. He never had that much trouble heaving himself out of bed when needed.

"_Haven't slept in a bed like this in such a long time. Not since then."_


	8. Not a Moment's Peace

Aw yes, we're almost to Wall Market. I wrote this chapter up earlier than I would usually considering the wait for the last chapter was so huge, so there we go. Plus I just want to go ahead and get to the most wonderful bit. So close!

I'd managed to avoid Tifa speaking for quite a while, but, well. I can't really keep that going forever, can I?

Thanks for any reviews, they do help to keep me going while I do this. It's always easier to get more motivated when you know that there are actually people reading and enjoying.

* * *

><p>"Cloud still hasn't come back."<p>

Tifa's forlorn statement broke the heavy silence that she, Squall and Barret had been sitting in for quite a while.

The three of them had returned to the bar that morning after what had happened at the reactor ready to wait and see if Cloud was going to come back. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge had left to go and look for any information they could find about the blond's whereabouts, but had come up empty handed and had called it quits at around eight o'clock that evening. They'd left to return to their families. It was useless to search well into the night when they could try again, more refreshed, the next morning.

They'd expected him to come back. It was past midnight so it had been over twelve hours since the events that had taken place that morning.

"Dammit, we don't have time to waste waitin' around for him!" Barret's large fist bashed against the sturdy wooden bar, betraying his anger. How dare that cocky SOLDIER keep them waiting like this? He was obviously alive, or at least he better be after all the boasting about how indestructible his kind were. "If he drags this out too long I'll off him myself!"

"Barret!"

The man growled, turning away and taking a deep breath. That may have been the wrong thing to say around Tifa. He turned back to her and muttered, "Maybe I'm overexaggeratin' a little, but damn! You'd think he'd be here by now."

"Just give him some more time... maybe he stopped to get some rest and he'll be here in the morning."

Squall was watching the two of them battle it out over the blond's current state of well-being in silence. He wasn't too worried. It wasn't as if this was the first time this had happened, after all, considering only a few days before on that train he'd lagged behind so that he could make a grand entrance. Knowing Cloud he was probably waiting around so that he could make everybody so relieved and awestruck when he just waltzed in, completely fine.

It was probably time to shut those two up, though. Arguing well into the night wouldn't solve anything.

"I'm going to head up and get some rest. You two should do the same."

With that he swept out of the bar and down to where he was sleeping while he was here, at least slightly pleased to hear that the small tiff seemed to have been broken up when he'd interrupted.

* * *

><p>The brunet awoke in the morning to the sounds of a commotion upstairs. It was still incredibly early, which was easily discernible from a quick check out of the window to see if the street lamps that lit up the slums during the day had been turned on, so he immediately sat bolt upright on his mattress. Had somebody tried to break in? What if Shinra had discovered their hiding place. There was no point in thinking about it, that wouldn't solve anything. He had to go up there and find out what was going on for himself.<p>

As he ascended to the bar proper and on the way he found himself close enough to hear what was going on up there.

"The hell you tryin' to sneak in for? I've seen your type hangin' round here for a while, and you better have a good reason!"

Barret seemed to be dealing with whatever the disturbance was up there quite well, but he definitely felt his own assistance would still be required.

Squall soon joined the others and quickly pinpointed what had roused them from their beds this early in the morning. Barret had a tight grip on a young man who was looking more worried now that he'd been caught by the burliest inhabitant of the bar. Tifa was there too, looking quite shocked that somebody had attempted to break in so early. They'd not even been in their beds for an hour and this had happened.

As Squall made his way closer to the group he got a better look at the man they'd caught. He was sleazily dressed with slicked back hair, and as the distance closed between them the brunet caught the distinct whiff of cigarettes in the air around him.

"You've got one minute to tell me who the hell you are and what you're doin' here." The way that Barret pressed his gun arm to the man's chest easily conveyed the fact that he wasn't playing games. Only a whimper from the man followed the statement, until a few seconds later when he started to babble.

"Hey man, the boss told me to look around here, y'see? I dunno why! I just gotta check for any funny business or whatnot. Thought it was closin' pretty early for a bar so there might be a mistake on the sign, so I came in to check it out!" The man's voice had risen by about an octave when Barret's upper lip curled into a snarl.

"Who you workin' for? Who's the boss?"

"Th-the Don! Corneo, in Sector 6! I dunno anything else, please, you gotta let me go!"

Barret seemed to grant him that last request, at least. After dragging him towards the door he slammed it open and hurled the shaking lackey out onto the street. "Get outta here, and don't come back! Tell your Don that we don't wanna see any of your type around here any more, or there'll be trouble, y'hear?"

Needless to say, the now terrified young man didn't need telling twice. He ran for the hills. Somehow Squall doubted he'd be going back to Corneo now that he'd gone and spilled his guts, but at the same time they couldn't be sure whether there were other men around and, if there were, how long they'd been watching the base. They could have been compromised.

There was one thing that confused the brunet, something that didn't quiet add up and hadn't been explained. Why had the Don been watching them? There was no understandable reason for him to do so, unless...

Unless Shinra were working with him.

That could be jumping to conclusions, but they had to be on the safe side. Squall felt it would be a good idea to have a discussion about this once they got inside, no matter what time in the morning it was.

Once the three of them had made their way back into the bar and shut the door after themselves, Tifa rounded on Barret.

"Why didn't you keep him for longer? He could've been lying, or withholding information! Just because he said the Don hadn't told him why they were watching us doesn't mean that he didn't know!"

Wow, she'd actually had the same idea. The brunet wondered if he should perhaps give her more credit from now on.

"Just leave it, Tifa. We don't wanna give 'em any more reasons to keep an eye on us, y'hear?"

"Oh sure, let's just sweep it under the carpet and pretend it didn't happen! This could be really important, Barret!"

"Keep it down, would'ja? Marlene's tryin' to sleep!"

Another argument. Squall sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose while he tried not to get frustrated with both of them. They were a group, a team. Them against Shinra. They weren't supposed to fight like this whenever something happened. Even Cloud was more agreeable than this, and that was saying something. He had to interrupt.

"You can argue all you want about this in the morning. I'm going to get some more rest. Somebody's gotta be prepared for whatever might happen tomorrow."

Rather than waiting for an answer he bailed on the entire situation. Even if the others wanted to carry on arguing, he was going to be the sensible one and keep himself fit and rested for any eventuality. Besides, his bed was calling him and he was hardly going to deny himself a few hours' peace.

* * *

><p>"Squall! Leonhart, get your ass outta bed!"<p>

Waking to the sound of Barret's yells wasn't the most pleasant experience, but the brunet was up and off his mattress in moments. After reaching for his gunblade, which he kept next to him while he slept so that he was constantly on guard, he looked to the leader to see what all of the commotion was about.

"Tifa's gone!"

She'd left? That wasn't like her. What could she be doing that was so important? He tried to think, wanting to figure out if there was somebody, anybody who might know when she'd slipped out this morning and where she'd gone to. Well, there was somebody that Tifa tended to talk to, and would've been closer to her than he or Barret had at the time...

"Marlene was in the same room as her, she might know something."

Judging by the way the man's eyes lit up and the speed at which he hurtled off to the room the girls had been staying in Barret hadn't actually thought of asking her yet. With a sigh Squall went to follow him, wondering if the young girl would have any idea of what Tifa had been thinking. It still wasn't likely by any means, but it was worth a shot. Better than not asking at all.

By the time he'd made it into the room Barret seemed to have already posed the question to his daughter, perhaps wanting to ask her in an environment that was as non-threatening as possible for her since she wasn't really keen on anybody other than her father or Tifa. When the brunet entered the bedroom she looked a little bit shocked but didn't seem to clam up entirely.

"When Tifa left? I don't know... she put on a pretty dress and said she had to go for a while."

Squall's brow furrowed. A pretty dress? Whatever was she doing that meant she had to dress up all fancily before she left?

Oh, no...

"I'll go get her. You stay here and keep an eye on what's going on around here."

The SeeD had a guess about where Tifa had gone, and the more he thought about it the more convinced he was that he must be right. Sector 6. The Don was well known for being a lecherous creep who invited the girls at the brothel in his Sector for a 'practice session' each and every night. What in Gaia's name was she thinking? He'd thought that something fishy was going on as well, but that didn't mean he'd gone and dolled himself up so that he could go and seduce Corneo. There were clearly more simple ways to go about finding the information that they needed.

Without waiting for Barret's reply the brunet left the bedroom and made his way to the front door of the bar. There was no point in waiting around, and since it still wasn't light outside he may still have a chance at catching up and finding her before the Don brought her in.

First Cloud, now Tifa. Why did everybody have to go and get themselves into messes and leave him to sort everything out?

* * *

><p>"What rank were you?"<p>

Cloud had been sat with Aerith in a small, dilapidated children's playground for a little while now, long enough to have settled on the top of a small slide with a dome surrounding it. They'd been sat in silence for a little while, just enjoying the quiet. It was nice to have some peace without it feeling horrendously awkward for once. Squall had always ended up intruding on most of his alone time back at the bar so it was nice to get away from it all for a little while.

When Aerith had broken the silence he looked over at her in mild surprise, his brow furrowing slightly as he tried to make sense of what she'd said.

"Rank?"

The young woman laughed at the dumb look that he was giving her. She was going to need to give him a bit of a prompt to find out what she wanted to know, it seemed.

"You know, in SOLDIER. What other rank would I be talking about?"

"Oh..." Well, he felt a bit slow for not realising that right away. He had a good enough reason because, even if he was a SOLDIER, he couldn't be expected to run spectacularly well on only a few hours sleep in the last few days. What rank had he been? It was on the tip of his tongue...

A flash of white.

"First Class, of course."

"Just the same as him..." Aerith let out a soft sigh afterwards, smiling wistfully at a swing-set a few paces away.

"Him?" Cloud prompted her, wondering who she was talking about. Somebody close to her? He wondered if he would have known the man. It seemed likely considering that they were the same rank, a fairly high, hard to attain one at that.

"My first boyfriend. He was in SOLDIER, too."

"Oh, right." Perhaps he shouldn't have pried. Probably best to check whether or not it was the sore subject that he thought it was. "Were you guys serious, or what?"

"No, I suppose we weren't. I did like him for a while, though."Aerith shook her head, and the blond wondered what memories he'd managed to dig up. "But it doesn't matter. It was a long time ago, you probably wouldn't remember him anyway, even if you did know him."

They descended into another silence, but this time it was a bit more awkward for the both of them. Cloud did wonder if he should have pressed the issue further. It probably wasn't the most sensitive thing to do, to make her talk about a boyfriend who obviously wasn't around any more.

Just then, the enormous gates that led through to Sector 7 opened up. A gaudy, pink and purple carriage emerged from it, pulled by a chocobo that was being guided by the carriage driver. Merely looking at the exterior of it was enough to know exactly where it was headed: Sector 6. The blond was about to stop paying it any mind until he saw a girl leaning out of the back.

"Tifa?" He stood up, craning over to get a better look at the girl who was carefully applying lipstick as best she could as the carriage wobbled over shaky, uneven ground. What was she doing in there, dressed like that?

"You know that girl? She looked kind of, well... odd." Yeah, that was something he could agree with. A tight, short dark blue dress was never his friend's attire of choice, especially not with a large heart shaped strip cut out of the breast area which put more on show than he was comfortable with looking at. If she was heading into Sector 6 for whatever reason, she certainly looked the part.

The blond had been too busy staring in confusion that he hadn't noticed Aerith jump down off the slide and start to run towards the cart, nor had he noticed somebody else slip through the gates before they had closed again. When he looked around to see that she was no longer there he looked shocked for a few moments before jumping down after her.

"Hey, wait! What are you doing? I'll go get her, you should go home now." He wasn't going to get Aerith in more danger. It was obvious to him that her mother was really going to dislike him after this. Well, in his defence he'd tried his best to keep her safe at home, but she'd managed to thwart him at every turn.

It was clear that Aerith wasn't listening to him and was just running into the Sector at full pelt, so he was just going to have to catch up to her and keep her away from all the strange, leery men that were contained within as best he could while he rescued Tifa. He stopped, however, when he heard a voice.

"Took you long enough to get back, didn't it?"

He recognised that voice. When he turned around his suspicions were soon confirmed.

Squall.

It was good to know that the brunet was already going to start making little comments about every little thing, including the fact that he hadn't made it back right away after being blown clean off a bridge.

"I've been busy. Things came up. What're you doing here?"

The brunet was actually quite taken aback by the fact that Cloud was already annoyed with him. He'd just been making an observation, not trying to be intentionally snide.

"Tifa took off this morning, I figured I'd better find her before she got herself into trouble. We don't need her mucking anything up."

Cloud snorted. Was that his way of taking control of the situation again? He had no idea what Tifa was thinking, but surely Squall could've made more of an effort to stop her beforehand rather than just waiting until she'd taken off. Why wasn't Barret here, anyway? Had he been told to stay home and look after Marlene?

"Fine. Guess I'm headed that way too." He would begrudgingly accept Squall's involvement, but wasn't going to just let him take charge like he'd been doing on the train before. He headed off in the direction that Aerith had run quite quickly, half because he didn't want the SeeD to go ahead and walk off ahead of him so soon after they'd joined together, and half because he didn't want anything to happen to Aerith after she'd run off by herself into what she had claimed during their travels was a rather dangerous place to spend time in. Wall Market.

He did wonder, in quite an exasperated fashion, just what they'd have to do before he could get back to the bar. Nothing was ever simple.


End file.
